UP Couple Want Stamos Extortion Case Thrown Out
MARQUETTE (WWJ/AP) - Two people in the Upper Peninsula who were convicted of trying to extort money from actor John Stamos are blaming their lawyers.
Allison Coss and Scott Sippola are asking a judge to set aside their convictions and four-year prison sentences. They say the attorneys who represented them gave them bad advice and recommended they turn down a favorable plea deal.
Attorney Frank Stupak Jr. says it was Coss' decision to reject a deal. Sippola's lawyer didn't return a message seeking comment.
Prosecutors have until January to respond.
In 2010, Coss and Sippola were convicted of conspiracy and using email to threaten a person's reputation. They had threatened to sell photos of Stamos with strippers and cocaine unless he paid $680,000.
The FBI said the photos didn't exist. A U.S. District Judge agreed and said Coss lied about the photos during her testimony at trial in Marquette.
Stamos has known Coss for years after meeting her in Orlando, Fla., in 2004 when she was 17-years-old. It was shortly after he had separated from his wife, supermodel Rebecca Romijn.
Coss testified that Stamos snorted cocaine, sat nude in a hot tub with the scantily clothed teenager, and made sexual advances as they kissed while lying on a bed. He denied it.
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